Standing Room Only Podcast Options

12:45 PM.If you were choosing a New Zealand city to be a UNESCO City of Music, which would it be? Auckland, with the support of the City Council, is going to push to be this country's first UNESCO City of… Read more Audio

12:13 PM.It's a craft as old as music itself - making beautiful instruments. And in his shed in Wellington, instrument-maker and repairer Alan Clayton shapes and repairs custom-made wood instruments. He tells… Read more Audio, Gallery

2:50 PM.The Benson & Hedges Fashion Awards were huge back in the 60s and 70s, before they were renamed when tobacco sponsorship went out of fashion itself. Audio

2:25 PM.Welsh band 9Bach is one of the acts lined up to be interviewed next weekend by veteran Womad Music festival journalist, McKenzie Jennings-Gruar. Read more Audio, Gallery

1:50 PM.British artist David Shrigley's ten-metre-high bronze sculpture of a 'thumbs up' is now the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. Audio

12:41 PM.It'll come as no surprise to New Zealand authors that it's not easy making a living. But it's also getting harder. Very few can make writing a fulltime career, it's harder than ever to find… Read more Audio

12:16 PM.The devastating influenza epidemic of 1918 killed more than 8,600 New Zealanders, including many soldiers who'd survived the First World War. The graves of hundreds of influenza victims are scattered… Read more Audio

2:44 PM.These days when we see bruises - especially on children and women - the first thought might be suspicion they've been abused. Bruises, cuts and gashes - both real and artiticial - feature in the… Read more Audio

1:42 PM.Juliana Brown Eyes-Kaho has an unusual background - she's Sioux-Tongan. She's also a photographer, an artist, a musician and an activist. Juliana was one of the first to protest against the Dakota… Read more Audio

12:43 PM.When the new Canterbury Earthquake Memorial was revealed last month, something unusual happened for a work of public art. It was universally appreciated! Christchurch filmmaker Rick Harvie has… Read more Audio

12:16 PM.There are the famous A-List Festivals of Europe - Cannes, Berlin and Venice. There's the equally prestigious Sundance Festival of Utah, the champion of smaller, independent films. Now there's growing… Read more Audio

2:38 PM.In Bastion Point, we experience the 507 days the occupiers spent at Bastion Point protesting against its planned development, through the eyes of teenager Erica Tito. Tania talks to Lynn Freeman about… Read more Audio

2:26 PM.Around the world there are campaigns to deter people from using plastic bags, to protect the evironment. An Auckland jeweller offers another option - she turns plastic bags into practical and… Read more Audio

1:26 PM.Andy Field challenges strangers to start talking to each other about big issues. He's currently in Auckland working on a project called LOOKOUT which he's creating with the help of children from… Read more Audio

12:34 PM.British actress Brenda Blethyn's long career on stage and screen has had plenty of high and low points, but in her 60s she scored a role that keeps on giving, the popular TV series, Vera. She's about… Read more Audio

12:16 PM.John Miller took his first protest photographs in 1967 as New Zealanders took to the streets to oppose the Vietnam War. 50 years later, and for the first time, he's revisited those early photographs… Read more Audio

2:49 PM.Irene Gardiner remembers some memorable award-show moments - from the notorious Goftas and the great Miss New Zealand debacle to Anna Paquin's breath-taking moment, receiving her Oscar for The Piano.

2:40 PM.An illustrated manuscript for a children's book lay forgotten for almost 6 decades. It's just been published by Makaro Press, with a couple of tweaks to update the text and a lot of work to disguise… Read more Audio